Chris Penn

Actor

Male

BornOct 10, 1965

HometownLos Angeles

DiedJan 24, 2006

Death PlaceSanta Monica, Cal...

NationalityAmerican National...

Other NamesChristopher Shann...

Christopher Shannon "Chris" Penn was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, Rush Hour, True Romance, All the Right Moves and Pale Rider and in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.… Read More

parents

siblings

Timeline

CHILDHOOD

1965Birth
His mother indicated that his date of birth was October 10, 1965, in Richard T. Kelly's book, Sean Penn: His Life and Times (2004).
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Penn is interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Read Less

TEENAGE

197913 Years Old
Penn started acting at the age of 12 at the Loft Studio and made his film debut in 1979’s Charlie and the Talking Buzzard, starring Christopher Hanks.

198317 Years Old
In 1983, he was featured in Francis Ford Coppola’s youth drama Rumble Fish and appeared in the high school football drama All the Right Moves as the best friend of Tom Cruise's character.

198418 Years Old
He also appeared in the hit dance movie Footloose in 1984 as the best friend of Kevin Bacon's character; played a villain in the Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider (1985); and co-starred with his brother Sean Penn and mother Eileen Ryan in At Close Range (1986).
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Penn was typically cast as a tough character, featured as a villain or a working-class lug, or in a comic role. Two of his more memorable performances were in Reservoir Dogs as Nice Guy Eddie and True Romance as Nicky Dimes (both characters in scripts written by Quentin Tarantino). Read Less

TWENTIES

198923 Years Old
Penn, who had a black belt in karate, appeared in the 1989 motion picture Best of the Best as Travis Brickley, a cocky member of the U.S. karate team taking on the team from Korea.
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The film also starred James Earl Jones, Sally Kirkland, Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, and Simon Rhee. Read Less

199327 Years Old
Penn reprised his role in 1993’s Best of the Best 2.
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In Robert Altman's ensemble film Short Cuts, Penn played a troubled swimming pool cleaner who is disturbed by his wife’s profession (a telephone sex worker who takes calls from clients at home) to which Penn’s character is obliged to listen. He also appeared as a fall guy in a criminal conspiracy in Murder by Numbers, alongside Sandra Bullock.<br /><br /> Penn was meant to appear in American Pie 2 as Steve Stifler's father, but the scenes featuring him were eventually cut as there was insufficient time to include him in the film's plot. However, they appeared on the deleted scene reel from the movie's DVD. Read Less

THIRTIES

199630 Years Old
In 1996 he won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the Venice Film Festival for The Funeral.
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In 1986, Chris was cast in a short run TV show titled Young Riders. He appeared in season one as a villain and was killed by Josh Brolin's character William Hickock. Read Less

200337 Years Old
In 2003, he appeared on the Will & Grace episode, "Fanilow", as Barry Manilow's tour director and a character who is interested romantically in Will.

Penn was featured in an episode of the television crime drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent ("Death Roe") during the 2004–2005 season.

He was also featured on the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the voice of Officer Eddie Pulaski.

200539 Years Old
Penn played himself on a 2005 episode of the HBO series Entourage.
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He appeared in The Darwin Awards, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival one day after his death.<br /><br /> Penn appears in Jay-Z's "Can I Get A" music video as a bartender who mixes drinks and dances. Read Less

FORTIES

Penn was found dead in his Santa Monica condominium on January 24, 2006, at the age of 40.
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Although Penn had used multiple drugs in the past, an autopsy performed by a Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed the primary cause of death was "nonspecific cardiomyopathy" (heart disease), with the prescription drug promethazine with codeine and an enlarged heart due to obesity being possible contributing circumstances. Christopher Penn appeared slim and fit throughout the 1980s in movies such as Footloose and Pale Rider, but gained a large amount of weight throughout the 1990s. Sean Penn has said publicly in a TV interview on Larry King Live that his brother probably died because of his weight.<br /><br /> There is conflicting information about Penn's age at the time of death, with some obituaries giving 1962 as his year of birth. Read Less